The scene opens in the Bridegroom’s home. The Bridegroom, a young man who has recently purchased a distant vineyard, prepares to leave and survey his property. His Mother suggests he eat something, but when the Bridegroom asks her to pass him a knife to cut grapes from the vine, the Mother grows upset. She virulently curses: “Damn the knife, damn all knives, damn the devil who created knives” (1). She grows distraught at the mention of a knife because it recalls for her the violent deaths of her husband and other son. Each were killed due to violence between two feuding families, the Felix family and the unnamed family of the Mother and Bridegroom. The Mother has been unable to move past these losses; she begins a tirade against the Felix family, one that she repeats often. The Bridegroom is used to her emotional response, and tries to soothe her by inviting her with him to the vineyard. This, however, triggers a new topic of conversation: the Bridegroom’s upcoming nuptials.

Now that the Bridegroom has acquired the vineyard, he is in the position to marry. However, his Mother doesn’t have a good feeling about the Bride: “Whenever I speak her name it’s as if a stone hit me between the eyes” (3).